Saab History

Photo Credit: Gumball3000 Rally

It looks like Saab Automobile is entering a Saab 9-5 BioPower SportCombi in the Gumball 3000 Rally.

The Gumbally 3000 rally this year will be taking place in the first of May starting in Los Angeles and ending in Miami.

I wonder if this is Saab Automobile’s effort to kickstart their E-85 BioPower launch of products in the United States in 2009? I guess that GM/Saab’s last dance will be their BioPower launch which is evidently a go? We’ll see if the entire range is made available here in the U.S., but wouldn’t they have been 2009 model years? This is confusing news nonetheless, but a good campaign for sure.

I hope the route they go has E-85 stations throughout, unless the Saab 9-5 BioPower will be carrying some extra cans of E-85 onboard!

To learn more about the Gumball Rally and Saab Automobile’s 2009 BioPower program here in the United States as they mentioned back in 2007, please check out these links.

Gumball Rally 3000

E-85 Availability in the United States

I have contacted the folks at the Gumball Rally as well as Saab Automobile Sweden’s BioPower department on this matter.

I have given this some considerable thought and after talking with a colleague of mine and reviewing a number of e-mails from Saab Enthusiasts and other automotive journalists, I am in a position to think Porsche would be a great owner for Saab with their products fitting in perfectly in the Porsche lineup as indicated here, especially with Porsche recently buying VW today which owns Audi & SCANIA.

This is what a possible product lineup would look like with Porsche if they were to buy Saab Automobile in order from trim levels (VW, Saab, Audi, Porsche).

If Porsche is truly in negotiations with Saab Automobile, then the three companies Jan-Åke Jonsson mentioned back on December 3rd, were either intential smoke-screens, or just said so long ago that Saab Automobile had already moved onto establishing dialog with other companies since that time.

In the meantime, I have provided three bullet points as to how and why Saab may be a good fit with Porsche in addition to where they fall in their model lineup.

* Porsche still has Saab’s former chief designer, Michael Mauer that worked in Sweden from 2000, responsible for the 9-X, 9-3X and 9-3 Sport Hatch Concept cars that inspired the 9-3 SportCombi production model as well as the 2004-2007 9-3 Convertible and 9-2x.

* Porsche could possibly be the owner SCANIA per Sweden’s law, maybe reconnecting Saab with Scania after 20 years of separation since 1989. This could happen regardless of SCANIA’s statement that they are not interested in financially supporting Saab made back on December 1st, 2008.

* Porsche Boxters & Saab 9-3, 9-3 Viggen & 9-3 convertibles were manufactured at the Valmet plant in Uusikaupunki, Finland together, and therefore may have the possibility to be on the same manufacturing line again.

I have sent in a few e-mails to Porsche at this point to inquire about this possibility because perhaps after them announcing their acquisition of VW today, they may not be done buying automobile companies.

So Who Is Saab Automobile’s Perspective Buyer? Since running a poll back back in late December, many of you voted for who you would think or would like to be Saab Automobile’s new owner. The results of the poll were interesting.

However, as of late, I have received the official word from all three automobile companies that Saab Automobile AB Sweden’s President, Jan-Åke Jonsson mentioned, PSA Peugeot-Citroen, Tata Motors and now BMW that none of them are interested in acquiring Saab.

If there are other buyers, who are they? Some of you have made some guesses with other brands such as Fuji-Heavy Industries, the maker of the Subaru that is tied in with Toyota, as well as Porsche who just acquired all VW, meaning that they are now the new owner of SCANIA, isn’t that interesting? Furthermore, is Opel still a possibility since they basically hold the strings to the next generation Saab 9-5 production?

Without hearing any official new companies officially mentioned, discussing any other companies besides the three mentioned would now be merely speculation.

As of today, I will not be attending the 2009 NAIAS this year due, even though the friendly folks at the NAIAS have provided me a press pass for the event. This press pass was actually a 1-day only pass good for after the first of the two opening days, unlike last year. I called to inquire about this and was told that GM did not include me this year on the list, which is why I did not get the full pass.

Since Saab Automobile USA’s communications department asked if I was attending some weeks back, I decided to call GM to inquire further about this list and found that although Saab Automobile USA asked about my attendance, it was decided by someone that I was to be not placed on this list because there was no real “Saab news” this year as the rationale.

While I understand that the news has been slow, this is one of the most pivotal time in Saab Automobile’s history, with a level of uncertainty about GM’s process of analyzing and possibly selling the Saab brand. Furthermore, in lieu of news, I see this could be an opportunity to create some news that is positive given that I hear that Saab Automobile AB Sweden execs will be at this event, Jan-Åke Jonsson included. So, wouldn’t this be a good opportunity to interview them and candidly ask them “So what is happening with the future of Saab” among other questions?

I think that last year’s event was a good one and I did my part to interview over 11 Saab Automobile executives during my time there, and I think we all appreciated that work. So, if the Saab Automobile executives are going to be at the NAIAS this year and there won’t be anyone present reflecting Saab’s history to ask the right questions, wouldn’t this be a big opportunity lost?

Photo Credit: Saab History

The U.S. Treasury has just indicated plans on providing GM a second loan for $5.4 on Jan 16th, following the first loan for $4 billion just last week according to the Detroit Free Press.

I thought that the $4 billion was supposed to hold GM over until March? GM needed to prove that it was worthy of it with a written report due by February 17th, so what does this do shelling out more cash to GM prior to providing such proof that they are worthy? This is not a good precident to set for GM, because now GM is probably thinking that no matter what they do, they don’t really need to prove anything because they’ll get money no matter what from the general public.

After receiving official responses from both TATA Motors as well as PSA Peugeot-Citroen lately, it has made me wonder if BMW is the only remaining potential buyer for Saab Automobile.

Update:

However, I just heard back from my contacts at BMW who have been in touch with BMW Headquarters in Munich, Germany and have said this is purely a rumor.

I did hear back from my colleagues in Munich. As I suspected, this is purely a rumor.

Maybe not the news you were looking for, but that’s the status.

Please feel free to contact me anytime. My father-in-law owned